CAMS to end Australian Formula Ford Championship

Kometes · 27-08-2013, 08:34 PM

http://www.speedcafe.com/2013/08/27/...ip-to-be-axed/

The Australian Formula Ford Championship will be discontinued at the end of the current season, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport has announced.
In a statement, CAMS cited the withdrawal of funding from Ford as the primary reason for the class’s eventual demise at national level.
State level Formula Ford championships are set to continue, while an annual national festival is being assessed.
National Formula Ford competition began in Australia in 1970, with the class graduating to CAMS championship status in 1993.
“As much as CAMS would like to see a thriving national Formula Ford competition, this has been and will be difficult to achieve,” said CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca.
“We agreed to run the category in 2013 when the category manager at the time was not able to continue doing so due to financial pressures – primarily a result of the withdrawal of important funding from the manufacturer.
“Those pressures have not eased and despite careful management of the category this year by CAMS, we simply cannot justify the time and money it will take to continue doing so beyond 2013.”
Three of the seven rounds that make up the 2013 championship are still to be run on the Gold Coast (October 25-27), Phillip Island (November 23-24) and Homebush (December 6-8).
Anton De Pasquale leads the standings following a sweep of all three Winton races at the weekend, while Macauley Jones is just eight points adrift.

This is sad to see, most of the half decent V8 drivers getting around nowadays have come from Formula Ford. I wonder how long it will take the main teams to realise finding drivers is going to become a bit harder in the future..

SteveJH · 27-08-2013, 11:05 PM

They couldn't have piggybacked Nationals rounds with the state rounds?

Trevor 57 · 28-08-2013, 07:20 AM

Pretty poor form from CAMS, but you know that this is typical of their form.

Open wheel racing has always struggled in Australia

geehaa · 28-08-2013, 08:03 AM

Losing a stepping stone is not good news for motor sport in Australia. I'm hoping it means that Ford is concentrating their sponsorship dollars in the main game.

Trevor 57 · 28-08-2013, 08:30 AM

There are other engine manufacturers that could possibly supply engines, they are a 4 cylinder engine, it can't be that hard for one of them to step, just needs someone with a bit of horse-power to take over the Category Management and approach a manufacturer

Kometes · 28-08-2013, 09:00 AM

The engines weren't sponsored by Ford anyway, they could've changed its name to anything they liked and brought in a different engine manufacturers to get rid of the 'Ford' stigma.

If the main teams had been a bit more supportive you could've had triple 8 and FPR racing each other in DVS, main game and formula Ford which would bring the crowds back a bit and help with the continuation of driver development

Peter B - CV8 · 28-08-2013, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

Pretty poor form from CAMS, but you know that this is typical of their form.

Open wheel racing has always struggled in Australia

Not entirely CAM's fault - as Ford has stopped funding the series. Would be good to see another manufacturer fill the funding void.

Hulsty · 28-08-2013, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

Pretty poor form from CAMS, but you know that this is typical of their form.

Open wheel racing has always struggled in Australia

How is it poor form by CAMS at all? They stepped in to run the thing this year according to the article!

CAMS are primarily a governing body, not promoter/manager of a series.

FPV8U · 28-08-2013, 10:06 AM

A massive shame to see a category like Formula Ford die at a National level, there is nowhere near enough support for Motorsport in this country, where to now will aspiring racers go after Karts?

Blue Oval Mopar Man · 28-08-2013, 10:40 AM

So the flash shiny new formula ford that was built recently (as seen on some other threads ) was a huge waste of time , money and effort !

4stanger · 28-08-2013, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FPV8U

A massive shame to see a category like Formula Ford die at a National level, there is nowhere near enough support for Motorsport in this country, where to now will aspiring racers go after Karts?

Agree, Now they have to go overseas.

IMHO to be successful here in a Formula Ford national series, they had that extra confidence to go overseas, to do it from a national karting level to overseas, will be a real 'make or break' step.

I'm not saying it is impossible, just aspiring drivers will have to create new ways, to succeed on the journey to top open wheeler catergories.

Formula Ford has only stopped running in Australia, they still run this catergory in Europe and North America, don't they?

Kometes · 28-08-2013, 11:33 AM

There are a number of past formula Ford winners who have gone overseas and become quite successful.
The series is still alive and quite well established in the UK, in the US it's not so big due to the number of other categories.

There needed to be a bigger reward for it to be appealing, formula 2000 in the US pays for the winner of the series to run a year in the next category and so on and so forth up to Indy cars. Here there's nothing and there's been plenty of good drivers who simply couldn't afford to go to dvs or overseas

**DJR-351** · 28-08-2013, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Oval Mopar Man

So the flash shiny new formula ford that was built recently (as seen on some other threads ) was a huge waste of time , money and effort !

If you are talking about the Formula Ford EcoBoost then no it wasn't a waste of time/money/effort, it's only reason for being was to demonstrate Ford’s 1.0 litre three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, not for racing.....

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/570...alian-stopover

GQ_Smooth · 28-08-2013, 04:19 PM

I don't see Ford Australia, being involved in any form of Motorsport for quite some time after 2016.

Hasn't hurt Toyota in Australia.

Trevor 57 · 28-08-2013, 06:45 PM

Just read of Facebook that AASA might take over the FF category and work with the category management to keep the National Series going, good on you AASA and Winton

ivorya · 28-08-2013, 09:12 PM

Absolute joke this cams mob.

They set the rules, all they need to do is get a promoter on board.
Nationally telecast the races with slogans ' Our future hero's' , compare with current/ex drivers - the Lowndes, Whingcup, Winterbottom etc.

They could have done it but like all politics, it's easier to get rid of it.. :(

Trevor 57 · 28-08-2013, 09:19 PM

FF are saying that they will be back as a National Series on their website, so it looks like the deal with AASA has been done.

NC1183 · 28-08-2013, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivorya

Absolute joke this cams mob.

They set the rules, all they need to do is get a promoter on board.
Nationally telecast the races with slogans ' Our future hero's' , compare with current/ex drivers - the Lowndes, Whingcup, Winterbottom etc.

They could have done it but like all politics, it's easier to get rid of it.. :(

Thats all CAMS do, they are the motorsports regulator in Australia, not a promoter or manager.
Maybe V8 Supercars could get involved

Kometes · 28-08-2013, 09:31 PM

The main teams (Synergy, Borland, Sonic etc) are looking to run the series next year. The Porsche cup and DVS are not CAMS affiliated and they are doing fine so it's definitely achievable.

The costs should be less and hopefully they will be able to get a better deal with promotion. Sounds like good things to come.